Barricades couldn’t handle the pressure, says survivor

HYDERABAD: For 45-year-old K Ravi Naidu from Palasa in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, the turnout of 15,000 devotees was “totally unexpected” at the Sri Venkateshwara Swamy temple, where a stampede on Saturday morning claimed the lives of nine and left several others injured.

- Srinivasa Rao Apparasu

“There has hardly been any crowd initially. Even on the festive days, the footfall was never more than 400-500 every day,” he said. When Naidu made his way to the temple in Kasibugga for his usual visit, the Palasa resident was “shocked to see the turnout of devotees”. “I had a quick darshan in the morning itself, but by the time I came out, there were serpentine queues at the entrance,” he said, adding that within minutes, there was jostling of crowds leading to the stampede.